Xbox Series X [XBSX] [Release November 10 2020]

"We have a smash driver model that takes the HAL and the run time layer and smashes it together and the games on the game binary are ... implement the hardware laid out data that the hardware GPU eats directly. So it's not a HAL layer abstraction and it makes it significantly more efficient. MS also pretty much re-writes ... so basically we completely re-write the driver and smash it together ....[snip who does it, and they're fantastic!] ... and replaces that, and .. pretty much all the firmware in the GPU with MS written firmware and so it's significantly significantly [note: he said it twice!] more efficient than the PC."

He explains they've done this since the first Xbox. I think this basically sums up how the Xbox 1 is able to maintain solid frame rates on it's puny Jaguar cores when the PC needs higher clocks on cores with vastly greater IPC.

I think you are mixing up the CPU and GPU here. The CPU does not really have a "driver" (or what you want to call it in a console setting).
 
I think you are mixing up the CPU and GPU here. The CPU does not really have a "driver" (or what you want to call it in a console setting).

He's saying because of the SMASH GPU drivers, the CPU overhead is minimized or substantially removed and allows for better performance. That is how the puny Jaguar cores can outperform higher classed PCs.
 
I think you are mixing up the CPU and GPU here. The CPU does not really have a "driver" (or what you want to call it in a console setting).

The smash driver is for the GPU, but calls to it are done on the CPU.

So in the PC space, there are many calls and translations done on the CPU before the work gets to the GPU. The MS smash driver makes things much, much more efficient on the CPU side.
 
Back cover off a retail unit. Got it from this Brazilian YouTuber(no English). Not a complete teardown as only the fan was removed. You can tell he already had the fan disconnected, but it looks like it's only 2 screws. He also shows where you manually eject the Bluray disc using a paper clip.

XBSXBackCoverOff.png


Tommy McClain
 
Snippets from the Xbox News article @ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/11/02/apple-tv-and-favorite-streaming-apps-available-at-launch/amp/

Apple TV and Your Favorite Streaming Apps Available on Xbox Series X|S at Launch

Just as we’re bringing forward all the games that play on Xbox One* today, we’re excited to announce that your favorite entertainment apps you enjoy today on Xbox One will be available on Xbox Series X and Series S. That means your favorite streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, NBC Peacock, Vudu, FandangoNow, Twitch, Sky Go, NOW TV, Sky Ticket and more, will be waiting for you when you boot your new Xbox console on November 10.
...
Apple TV is coming to Xbox Consoles

When our all-new Xbox family of consoles launch worldwide on November 10, you’ll have more than just the entertainment apps you enjoy today on Xbox One. We’re excited to share that the Apple TV app is coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on November 10.
...
With our new consoles, immerse yourself with fuller colors, enhanced dynamic range, and spatial sound just as the filmmakers and creators intended on Xbox Series X|S with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, which are supported on apps like Netflix, Disney+, and Vudu.
 
Snippets from the Xbox News article @ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/11/02/apple-tv-and-favorite-streaming-apps-available-at-launch/amp/

Apple TV and Your Favorite Streaming Apps Available on Xbox Series X|S at Launch

Just as we’re bringing forward all the games that play on Xbox One* today, we’re excited to announce that your favorite entertainment apps you enjoy today on Xbox One will be available on Xbox Series X and Series S. That means your favorite streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, NBC Peacock, Vudu, FandangoNow, Twitch, Sky Go, NOW TV, Sky Ticket and more, will be waiting for you when you boot your new Xbox console on November 10.
...
Apple TV is coming to Xbox Consoles

When our all-new Xbox family of consoles launch worldwide on November 10, you’ll have more than just the entertainment apps you enjoy today on Xbox One. We’re excited to share that the Apple TV app is coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on November 10.
...
With our new consoles, immerse yourself with fuller colors, enhanced dynamic range, and spatial sound just as the filmmakers and creators intended on Xbox Series X|S with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, which are supported on apps like Netflix, Disney+, and Vudu.
Heh... and I just got a year free.

Now... what to watch. :|
 
beautiful game. Great lighting and shadows.

Loved the lighting on the paper she's holding on the boat.
Sea is using SSR, visible artifacts on the left and right side.

Birds way up high casts shadows onto the forest at 7:21.
beautiful!

feels like UE. The dust particles in the air feel like a tutorial I've completed in the past.
Interesting reflection shader on the bottom of the wood at 17:25. Though I don't think this is an indication of anything in particular.
 
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She really talks a lot

I take it you don't play a lot of puzzle games? Looks & sounds great to me. Can't wait to play it. Reminds me of Sea of Thieves mixed with RiME mixed with an Artifex Mundi seek & find game. A couple of the Out of the Blue game developers are from Tequila Works, makers of Deadlight & RiME. This is their first game in the new studio.

BTW, the voice actress for Norah is Cissy Jones. She was the voice of Delilah in Firewatch. Still need to play that.

Tommy McClain
 
Bright Memory is different from Bright Memory Infinite. Bright Memory is like a preview while BM:I is supposedly the full game.

Yes, it's like a 1 hour taste & has repeatable challenges. You don't get a free upgrade to the larger game(Bright Memory Infinite). They are separate.

Also, here are some more Bright Memory Infinite screenshots....


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Tommy McClain
 
Yes, it's like a 1 hour taste & has repeatable challenges. You don't get a free upgrade to the larger game(Bright Memory Infinite). They are separate.

Also, here are some more Bright Memory Infinite screenshots....


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Tommy McClain

I really feel that this and Exo-Mecha are going to be the best 1st-year visual showcases for Series X. Which speaks a lot to the talent involved given (at least for BMI) they are pretty small teams. Scorn is another visual showcase IMO, a lot of that has to do with the visual aesthetic tho (I'm a fanboy for H.R Giger-esque designs :D)

Also that Todd Howard stuff, if they're speaking about ES:VI this early maybe (hopefully) it is further along than people think ;)
 
You guys remember beginning of XBO, you could launch like Killer Instinct and setup a match. Waiting to connect to a match, and during that time you could hotswap to something else while waiting for that lobby to happen?

I'm surprise that isn't a feature they want to bring back. To be able to wait for a match make to happen and now play another game entirely or something. There is definitely the horsepower to do it.

This thing?
Smart Match
Ryse001.png

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2013/07/30/games-smartmatch-feature/

After you or a party member inputs the criteria for your perfect game, do something more fun than waiting; it’s up to you. Play another game, find some new downloadable content, or jump on Reddit. Take yourself as many touch points away from the matchmaking process as you can and you still don’t need to worry about finding your way back. Once Xbox One is done finding your perfect match, it will prompt you with a simple toast—no matter where you are or what you’re doing—so you can jump straight into playing.
 
You guys remember beginning of XBO, you could launch like Killer Instinct and setup a match. Waiting to connect to a match, and during that time you could hotswap to something else while waiting for that lobby to happen?

I'm surprise that isn't a feature they want to bring back. To be able to wait for a match make to happen and now play another game entirely or something. There is definitely the horsepower to do it.

That may have been a major item behind all the Halo:MCC matchmaking issues; the ones where they had to entirely rewrite that section of the game. I know H:MCC has a dev blog entry about the matchmaking woes and one part used an analogy of waiting on a train platform with a ticket for a train.

EDIT: This might be one of the blog entries -- https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...xt/32dd5e4a-1001-4aae-b51b-22c091e8d21a/posts

One of the main matchmaking issues was related to the way that the games gathered players – each title had some differences in how it sought out players, then connected them into sessions. In an attempt to unify that method, we actually introduced a bunch of (with the benefit of hindsight) several avoidable problems and some unavoidable ones. It gets really technical, and this is as much metaphor as technical explanation, but each potential player was assigned a kind of “ticket” which would then grant them entry into a match or session – picture a virtual waiting room at a train station – when the train arrives (a match) – everyone has to board - or the train can’t leave. Issues arose when folks left sessions before games had started that would cause the initial ticket distributions to fail, and that sometimes meant very long wait times for matches as tickets were issued and reissued – especially in countries with lower populations.

Now the above isn’t particularly unusual or original in terms of approach, but at the time the systems were less resilient in terms of churn, and bad information could cause a lobby or match to get caught in a state where it couldn’t ultimately complete a group and join them cleanly into a session.

At the time we made tons of changes to the backend server configurations to try and reduce those wait times, but ultimately it was a self-fulfilling prophecy – players understandably would leave sessions because they got tired of waiting for a match to begin, and that would amplify the issue across the board.​
 
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